DEATH, TAXES, AND A NEVERENDING STORY

Dearest Friends,

I guess I've been dragging my feet when it comes to winding up this tale. Perhaps you noticed? It's partially because I have so enjoyed reliving these experiences through your eyes, that I hate for the fun to end, but there's a lot more to it than that. Here's the thing. How do you end the never-ending story?

You may think this story ended as soon as we packed up our belongings and boarded the plane, but that's just not true. These stories came home with us -- became a part of who we are, and who our children grew up to be. They reshaped our beliefs, our ethics, our politics, our philosophy, our world view...broadened our tolerance for some things, but narrowed it for others. They made it impossible for our kids to fit back into their old roles in their old cliques when we moved back to the town where they grew up, but they opened the door to many new friends and new experiences. It affected not only their food preferences and love of travel, but also their learning styles, their creativity, and their open mindedness. In fact, those three year's worth of stories have probably colored most every important decision they have made, and always will.

That being said, we still have to put this baby to bed at some point. So, I thought I would give you  John's last letter home today, share a couple of more stories over the next week, and then I suppose, we will call it a day.

April 13, 1994

Dear Mom & Dad,

This has been a pretty rough week. Saturday morning Mike called and informed me about Nub's cancer. Then shortly after that I got a call that John Tankersley was killed in Qatar in a boating accident. I've know John and worked with him since I came to work with Mobil. He was my counterpart at Mobil's field operations here. They had just moved back to Dallas last year. It had everyone pretty much in a state of shock the whole weekend. Then Alan Silverman's dad died before he could get home Saturday. Plus his secretary's father died this past weekend also. I tell you, it just seems to come in bunches.

I finally received Mike's last letter. He was talking about going to the family reunion and was wanting to hear about our plans. I doubt we will have time this year to attend. If we do, it will have to be a last minute thing. I won't have quite as much time at home as I did last year. I'll be saving a week's worth of vacation in case I need it during the fall.

Report cards for our kids came out this past week. Alexis' teacher seems to be real pleased with the effort she is putting out now. She seems to be focusing a little better on the task at hand. She was doing a great job on her science project until she lost her display posters. Can't find them at school anywhere and she insists she brought them home, but we can't find them around here either. Austin seems to be breezing along. He needs some more kids to give him some competition.

Becky is finally getting close to finishing her quilt. In fact, she has to be done by next weekend. Everyone is going to display their quilts at a fair. She has really done a good job, but I doubt she'll ever do another, particularly when we move home. Putting one of those things together takes a lot of time and she probably won't have much of that back home.

P.T. Arun has just undergone a reorganization and things around here are more confusing than usual. About half of the engineers in my group are going out to another section. Still remains to be seen exactly what I will be doing. Probably pretty much the same thing. It will be a little harder for me to keep in touch with the engineers in a different group, but that's what I will have to do.

Well, guess that's about it for now. Thanks for taking care of my IRS stuff. It's just real iffy trying to mail that kind of thing from here. But from what I saw on CNN, doesn't look like the US mail system is any safer. Give everyone our regards.

Love,
John

NOT MUCH HELP SO FAR

Dearest Friends,

Writing about this era of our lives will be quite a bit different from writing about that first stint overseas.  There are no journals to help me along, but many more friends whom I have stayed in touch with, and whom I am hoping will contribute "their side" of the story, either in the comments or with guest posts.  We also have many, many more photos from this period (you know how it is when you have kids!) -- photos which have taken me days to pull together into any semblance of order, since most were tossed into boxes without any dates or labels.  I'm still working on that, in fact, and I'm hoping these photos will take the place of my journals, as memory joggers and story inducers.  And then there are my two kids, whom I thought would be the best resource of all.  This is how that's going so far:

Mom: Hey kids, I need your help with something -- not too difficult, I promise! I'm fixing to start writing about our time in Indonesia when you guys were little, and I'd love to start off with a "guest post" from you two.  Doesn't have to be very long -- mainly I just want to hear, in your own words, how you felt when we told you where we were moving, what you were most looking forward to about the move, what scared you the most, how you pictured this unknown place in your head, and how the reality compared to this mental image.  Easy, right?  Only I need it as soon as possible, so JEPAT! JEPAT! (can't remember how to spell that)

Alexis:  Unfortunately, I don't remember much about your announcement that we would be moving. Actually, I don't remember it at all. I do remember sitting in P.E. We were going around the circle, and everybody was saying something good that happened. When it was my turn, I said that I was moving to Indonesia. The teacher looked at me kind of funny, then said "That's not a good thing, that's a sad thing!" (Lex did add some good memories about the trip over and her first impressions, but I'm saving those for later)

Austin: no reply yet

Mom: I'm trying to get all our photos from Indonesia put into chronological order before I start writing, and it's much harder than I expected!  I may need your help now and then.  For now, lets just get your birthday parties, Halloween costumes, and our vacations straight, which will then help me group some of the other photos.

First year: Austin had "the worst birthday ever" at our house, almost as soon as we got there, and Lex had her fairy party that January.  Halloween, I remember helping out with that great spook house (that you guys wouldn't go in), but I don't remember what either of you wore that year.  Could it have been a witch costume and ninja pj's that we brought with us? For vacation, I think we just went to Penang on our own, but a bunch of other Mobil families were there at the same time.

Second Year -- Austin had a Batman pool party I think, and Lex had her 50's birthday party, with the car out front and candy cigarettes.  For Halloween I think maybe Lex had the pink and black satin cancan-dancer outfit, and Austin was the headless horseman.  Does that sound right?  For vacation we went to Phuket and Phi Phi Island, plus, when Aunt Kathy came to visit, we took her to Lake Toba and Penang.

The last year we were there, Lex had her Japanese restaurant birthday party, but I have no idea what we did for Austin's birthday.  Do either of you remember?  For Halloween, I think Lex had that old-timey outfit I made out of lace curtains and flowered cushion cover fabric, and I think Austin used part of his headless-horseman costume with a grodie mask to be a pirate.  Our vacation that year was going to Australia with the Halls and Hunts.  Right?

Austin: I've just realized that I barely remember anything. I remember the headless horseman outfit but I have zero recollection of being a ninja. I don't think I'm going to be a ton of help on this. I do remember the worst birthday ever, though =P Also, you sent an email earlier asking us to write something about moving there. I really don't remember anything from that time. I have a fuzzy memory of watching dad's home video showing off square toilets, and I remember the first day of kindergarten at I.S.O.L, because Chaz and Jordan both had red hair and I automatically assumed they were brothers. But beyond that it's just weird out of order events. I think I was just too young to be really analyzing anything that was going on. I definitely don't remember being particularly upset about moving to the other side of the world. I guess I was always pretty open minded about it. 

Chaz, Jordan and Austin

Mom: One more thing, which teachers did you have each year?

Lex: It all sounds correct to me, but I don't remember what Austin's birthdays were.  Third grade I had Mrs. Nybake, the dragon lady.  Fourth was Mrs. Poulin, and the last year it was Mr. Jacoby.

Austin: Kindergarten was Mrs. Poulin?  1st grade was Mr. Zavala (they mixed in 1st and 2nd grade that year, possibly 3rd), and then 2nd grade I had Mrs. Zavala. That was the year that started out with 5 kids, but then Nikki and Emily moved and it was just me, Ryan, and Trent for the rest of the year. That was pretty neat.